Assessment of the Optimal Inclusion Level of Dietary Zinc Requirement for Catfish Clarias gariepinus Production

摘要

Aquaculture requires adequate food in the form of artificial diet to furnish fish with nutrients for optimal growth. Trace mineral are recognized for their important roles in presenting proteins bioavailable in diets. Hence, zinc offers some solutions against the many inhibitory actions of plant base materials; however, its deficiency perturbs the general wellbeing of the fish. The study attempts to ascertain the required optimum level of dietary zinc essential for juvenile African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) growth and health performance. Fish were fed practical diet with graded levels of zinc at 0 to 27.33 mg Zn kg-1 respectively. Broken-line quadratic model showed the optimum dietary supplementation of zinc in fish growth performance at 13.67 mg Zn kg-1. Mean weight gain showed a significant difference at P2+ while Urea showed no significant effect in all the diets as recorded in Table 5. The investigation indicates optimum growth response. Therefore, emphasis should be placed on supplementing adequate zinc minerals in diets to reduce anti-nutritional factors and boost protein bioavailability.